Former Hearts boss Ian Cathro sat Kyle Lafferty, Jamie Walker and Esmael Goncalves down with a glass of whisky and told them he wanted 70 goals from the three of them.
The bizarre pep talk took place in Belfast back in 2017, the night before Hearts were due to round off a pre-season our of Ireland and Northern Ireland with a friendly against Linfield.
Cathro was preparing for what was supposed to be his first full season in charge at Tynecastle, with Lafferty having signed just weeks earlier after some badgering by Northerhn Ireland and Hearts assistant Austin MacPhee.
Goncalves had been a January arrival while Walker had progressed through the ranks to become an attacking creative force for the Jambos.
And Cathro decided that a cosy chat over some whisky was just the way to let them know what he was expecting of them over the season to come.
“We're playing down in Dublin first then travelling up to play Linfield,” said Lafferty on the Open Goal podcast.
“The night before the game I get a phone call saying the gaffer wants to see me, Jamie Walker and big Esmael.
“I’ve walked in. Cathro goes to Austin: ‘Did you find a place.’
“Austin says: ‘Yeah, there’s a wee boozer across the road, there's a few people in it’.
“He was like: ‘We’re going to have to make this our man cave.’”
“Cathro goes: ‘What do you want [to drink]?’ I’m fine as I have water in my room.
“This is 8pm and we're playing Linfield at 3pm the next day. And then Austin’s gone 'whisky’?
“Esmael's taken a whisky. So the five of us are sitting there with a whisky and he's [Cathro] speaking to us. ‘See you three there, you are going to be Hearts this season. You are going to score 65-70 goals. We had done well in pre-season.
“Turns out we scored 23 goals and I got 19 of them.
"Sitting down with the manager and Austin before a game having a whisky. I had a shocker.”
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